Students play defendant, plaintiff and jury in mock trial at Fall River Justice Center

Edward Cullen grabbed the back of his head, showing the spot where the baseball bat hit him. Cullen’s estranged girlfriend, Bella Swan, was on trial for throwing the bat at him. Cullen told a prosecutor they were no longer dating. “Of course not, she’s crazy,̶...

Swan claimed self defense, arguing she was just a clumsy softball player, and that the bat flew out of her hands during practice. Even though she had warned him a day earlier that he would be sorry for breaking up with her, she claimed the incident was an accident.

“I lost my grip of the bat... I went over to him to apologize,” she said.

Truth be told, the main characters from the Twilight movies were not really on trial this week at Fall River Superior Court. Local middle school students played their roles, and the jury was comprised of students, as well.

The mock trial was held Wednesday to commemorate Law Day, an annual nationwide event that has been observed since President Dwight D. Eisenhower instituted it in 1958 to recognize the principle of the rule of law.

This year’s Law Day theme is “Realizing the dream, equality for all,” since 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th year since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Local middle school students wrote essays on the theme, and four were selected to read their award-winning essays on Wednesday: Kaira Eleuterio of Morton Middle School, Abigail Cassidy of Kuss Middle School, Jennifer Ramos of Henry Lord Middle School and Ramon Torres of Talbot Middle School.

Several of the students wrote about the long, tough road to equality endured by generations of minorities and civil rights activists. That struggle, the students said, is not yet complete. Abigail Cassidy, Kaira Eleuterio and Ramon Torres connected the current controversies over the same-sex marriage debate to the fight for equality and overcoming discrimination.

Abigail, 14, an eighth-grade student who also played Bella Swan in the mock trial, said the issue was important to her because she believes “everybody should have equal rights no matter what they believe in.”

An important aim of the law is to ensure that everybody has equal opportunity for success — that they are all equal “at the starting line,” said attorney William McKeon, Jr., president of the Fall River Bar Association.

“Everybody has the same shot,” McKeon told the students.

Each year on Law Day, Bristol County law school students are awarded the Thomas McGovern Scholarship to help pay for their studies. Timothy J. Vaughan of North Easton and Mandi Desmarais of Westport received the scholarships this year.

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On Wednesday, Mayor William Flanagan also read a proclamation declaring Law Day in Fall River. Flanagan, a former prosecutor, told the students that the law has always had a special place in his heart, and added that he hoped the students would not be back in a courtroom on the criminal side of things.

“It’s not a place you want to be involved in,” Flanagan said.

Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter also addressed the young audience, telling the students that everybody has a constitutional right to a lawyer, no matter how poor they are. He also said that his most compelling reason to enter a career in law was to “serve the public.”

Two of Sutter’s assistant district attorneys, Kyle McPherson and Melissa Weikert, respectively, played the roles of the defense attorney and prosecutor in the mock trial. Weikert later joked that the experience was “fun” and that it was “nice going up against Kyle and taking him down.”

Michael Bernardo, 13, an eighth-grade student from Morton Middle School, played Edward Cullen. He said he volunteered for the role to have a better appreciation for what his father, a police officer, does on a daily basis.

“I hope the jury comes back guilty,” Michael said.

But that was not to be. The jury foreperson, Serena Riley, 14, an eighth-grade at Kuss Middle School, read the verdict: Not guilty. She later said that the lack of corroborating witnesses left too much reasonable doubt.

“It was exciting,” said Serena, who wrote an essay in which she said everyone should have the right to his or her opinions and beliefs.